Note to self: Start pitching to Boom.

 

It had a toy line, it just wasn't very large or successful. I never watched it, but it apparently horrified my wife with normalization / justification of an abusive relationship at the end.

 

And if Boom gets it, incoming Power Rangers/Transformers crossover that could be canon.

 

What If did not have all of the original actors. They had SOME. More than one would have expected. But not ALL.

 

And maybe finally do that Transformers/Justice League crossover we saw art for, but never happened for some reason.

(Actually, why did the initial TF/JL crossover not happen anyway?)

 

I also gather that a number of the X-Men 97 actors aren't returning to the original roles, but to different ones.

 

While the DJD ultimately were kind of shit and Tarn abso-fucking-lutely should have been Roller, I won't lie in that I think the designs are fucking amazing and I'm glad I was able to get them all though MMC. Even Nickel.

Sounds like what I've heard about certain characters in Steven Universe.

Because the TF/Avengers crossover was...pretty much a load of shit from what I hear.

 

Well IDW had better NOT lose the licence cos i want 2.0 to have the chance to me as awesome and memorable as MTMTE.
I would've said "IDW 1.0" there but in all honesty; the most memorable parts of 1.0 were in MTMTE.
Till All Are One was the closest non J-Ro material that came to being interesting, everything else was comparatively dull.

 

Oh, I'd disagree.

I mean, Spotlight: Arcee happened.

And Last Stand of the Wreckers was not MTMTE.

 

Oh. I actually forgot that existed. Never got around to reading it, so I’ll just have to take your word for it there.

Isn't it, though? The story is by Nick Roche and James Roberts, isn't it? Plus, Roche was meant to do the art for MTMTE and did so for the first issue (and #6) and only couldn’t because he couldn’t keep handly a monthly ongoing schedule (or something like that), right? Plus, MTMTE follows up on stuff established by LSOTW, didn't it?

 

How many episodes?

 

With all do respect, I wasn\'t really a fan of IDW\'s \"Make everything LGBT friendly\" tactic. There are a lot of people that will disagree with me, but did it really have to go so far to the point where we established that EVERYONE on Cybertron was male in order to solidify a reason of gay cybertronians? We could\'ve had Chromedome and Rewind, and a few others have the spotlight, and that\'s it. To me, it felt more like a fangirl\'s fanfiction than actual canon. Why did the writers allow it to become a fangirl\'s paradise? It just feels like they were forced to do it to follow trends, not to because they wanted to. Call me a Geewunner, but I\'m sure there\'s a couple out there that agree. Over time however, I did begin to accept the idea of functionism being a thing. It gave much more reason to the great war than loss of energon or just because it\'s leftover quintesson programming. It told the true story of why the decepticons the way they were: because they were racistly put into classe groups by the autobots. With that perspective, it makes me cheer and root for the decepticons even more. At least that\'s one good thing that I appreciate about this company. But of course, this is a mere rumor, and we shouldn\'t take to much into heart. I hope this didn\'t sound offensive in any way to anyone. it\'s not wrong to like something that others may dislike.

 

Sadly 2.0 was much like a lot of the many comic reboots...more often than not a jumping OFF point rather than a jumping on point. Ultimately it hurt IDWs TF brand.

 

Well, if that's true... then damn. That's a bummer. The main ongoing and Beast Wars were especially enjoyable, and it'll be sad to see those lines and creative teams come to a close so soon. I'll be honest and say I never really felt the main ongoing had a solid direction it was going or endgame in mind other than a nebulous "show the start of the war." Up until, that is, with this recent "return of Exarchon" stuff. I can see it has a solid direction it wants to go, and if that comes from Ruckley knowing about the loss of the license in advance, then more power to him. He knows how much time he has, and he's using it to the best of his ability, drawing things to a close, or at least leaving it at a good jumping-off point of, "Okay, now you can guess where this story foes from here." Ditto basically goes for Beast Wars.

And, with me not knowing *anything* about the wider comic industry, what would these two losses leave IDW with now? A couple other IPs and some other licenses? Are they going to be up shit's creek soon? (Assuming of course it's Hasbro pulling out the license, and not IDW not wanting it anymore).

It does fill me with a certain personal melancholy that my original signature when I first joined these boards three years ago, "Only here to talk about the end of the IDW universe," is pressingly relevant again, even more so than before.

Assuming the license does go to someone else, then I guess we can probably expect a tie-in comic with the new Nickelodeon show that Cyberverse never got. Which might be nice. Unless that genre of comic line is considered dead-in-the-water now and that's why Cyberverse never got one. Which would be sad.

 

Off-topic to TF but related to IDW, it makes me worry about their Sonic comic. Archie went into financial problems and dropped Mega Man then lost Sonic after the comic lasted so many years. I'd hate to see another Sonic comic canceled so soon.

 

The comic book industry as a whole has been living on borrowed time. C19 not helping. Will they ever recover?

 

As a Geewunner, I appreciate that even across multiple franchises, continuities, and media over four decades, Hasbro has always kept the G1 cast at the core. Sure, they're always introducing new characters including non-G1 fembots to ensure their audience is represented, but the OGs are the main characters. And they're like 98% dudes!

I also appreciate that from the very start, these characters were portrayed as having human-like emotions. As Spike says way back at the beginning, "The Autobots are a very advanced form of robot. I don't know if they're from the past or the future, but they can think and have real feelings." What feeling is more real than love? I've seen some fans complain that Cybertronians should be more robotic and alien, but that's definitely not the intention of the original series.

Quite frankly, anything less than most of the main characters being gay is an insult to G1, and as a Geewunner, I'm sincerely grateful that Hasbro is honoring that legacy.

 

I said even when I owned my own shop that comics needed to get away from the direct market. My comic book stores were Safeway, 7-11 and the pharmacy. Back then, c level comics were seeing print runs in the hundred thousands, while the big guns were in the million + range. But going to the direct market took books out of the mainstream and into specialty stores....and most parents don't see those as destinations they care about...much easier to just get them a toy or trinket while at the shop they are already in than go to a store they don't want to be in...

Surviving would be easy if they get back into grocery / convenience and mass retail....at least for kid friendly titles. Take the obvious one for us, Transformers, for example. A mom and kiddo walk into Target, he wants a DX figure...that's $23+...it might be a tough sell...but there's a spot for the current issues of the comics, so mom says "NO, but you can have THIS instead" because a $4 book is more attractive than a $25 toy to a parent. (And if you look at Target especially they have gone heavy with the kids books lately.)

If every Target had 20 issues of the current comic, every month it would increase circulation by 38,000 and that's just Target...if you get into Walmart with that same 20 that gives you another 98,000...get in with just 2 companies and you are exceeding current BATMAN or SPIDER-MAN numbers. Then add all the grocery stores, Barnes and Noble, CVS, Walgreens...etc. The direct market took comics out of the public view, it's no wonder it's declined for so long. I love comic book stores, but honestly...Get back in front of the customers and you have a much better chance for success.

 

Ah! Those were the simple times. Straight forward stories of fictional heroism with great tales. Colors were like 4? UncXmen had a monthly print of 500k! Getting a 50k run like Byrne's Namor led to a comic getting cancelled! 50k!
Sure, factors such as the rise of videogames took a bite outta their market but yup, direct was both boon and bane.
I'll mention another defunct TF comic company, DW Tf mtmte had a great anime comic style but I noticed, like the Family Guy Peter vs the Chicken, all they did was stretch the story!
I could go on and on

 

Yes!!
Finally, someone agrees with me about the state of the X-Men.